School Constriction

Dipping into funds reserved for parishes and schools has pushed the debt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa to more than $15 million, forcing a halt to all construction. The grimmest assessment yet of the financial crisis facing the diocese, which stretches over Northern California from Petaluma to the Oregon border, was given Wednesday by Archbishop William Levada, who took over when Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann resigned in the midst of a sex scandal.

Dipping into funds reserved for parishes and schools has pushed the debt of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa to more than $15 million, forcing a halt to all construction. The grimmest assessment yet of the financial crisis facing the diocese, which stretches over Northern California from Petaluma to the Oregon border, was given Wednesday by Archbishop William Levada, who took over when Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann resigned in the midst of a sex scandal.